Bob Kravitz: Colts need more T.Y. Hilton, less Stanley Havili

Sep. 13, 2013

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Indianapolis Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton had three receptions in the season opener. However, he wasn't on the field a lot. Colts coaches and players say Hilton will get plenty of chances to make big plays. / Matt Kryger / The Star

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Full disclosure:

This Pep Hamilton offense is going to take some getting used to.

It has only been one game, so it’s foolish to reach any coherent conclusions. But this much we noticed from Game 1 against the Oakland Raiders:

The Indianapolis Colts’ best offensive players need to get more opportunities to do special things.

That means Andrew Luck throwing. That means Dwayne Allen catching passes. And that means T.Y. Hilton getting more snaps than fullback Stanley Havili rather than standing on the sideline.

Don’t listen to me.

Listen to Jim Sorgi, the Colts’ former backup quarterback and current radio analyst, whose honesty is refreshing.

“Why are we taking some of our playmakers off the field?” Sorgi said in an interview on WFNI-AM (1070) this week. “I know we want to run the ball with the power running game with two, three tight ends, and that’s fine. But you can also run the ball with two, three wide receivers in there. It’s easier to identify where they’re coming from and that’s where we got in trouble (Sunday against the Oakland Raiders).

“We did a good job on the two opening series, but the next four, we get in those two, three tight end sets and they start packing the box, and you don’t know where they’re coming from, who’s coming, who to identify. Plus you’re taking the game out of Andrew’s hands as far as being able to check in and out of run plays to pass plays when you have numbers. I just don’t like T.Y. Hilton and Darrius Heyward-Bey on the bench. I don’t.’’

Ditto on that.

Granted, it was a low-possession game, so it wasn’t like Hamilton could empty the offensive playbook. This was one of those weird games when the Colts defense couldn’t get off the field on third down, and every possession was precious. And it was, after all, Hamilton’s first game as an NFL offensive play-caller.

Are we making too big a deal about the lack of snaps for Hilton in the last game, I asked Hamilton on Thursday.

“I would say at this point it is a bit premature, just from the standpoint that we only had seven series in the first game,” he said. “T.Y. is a valued playmaker in our offense.”

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Here’s my concern, perhaps unfounded: Luck, Reggie Wayne and Hilton are the team’s biggest impact players on offense. And in the opener, Hilton played just 24 snaps and was targeted five times, catching three passes. Percentage-wise, Hilton still was targeted on one of every five passes thrown by Luck, but all things considered, I’d rather see him on the field more.

You just won’t hear Luck complaining.

“We had 53 snaps, take out a couple of kneel-downs,” he said. “Fifty snaps a game? We threw 60 passes sometimes last year. It was the nature of the game. You won’t hear him (Hilton) complain. I know that. He’s a phenomenal teammate, team player, and we trust our coaches. They know what’s best.”

Maybe next time owner Jim Irsay can tweet about Hilton.

“Coming out of (the game), one of the first things we talked about was ‘got to get him more plays, got to get him (Hilton) more touches,’ ” coach Chuck Pagano said. “Again, you move the chains, create turnovers, do all those things. Our third, fourth, fifth possessions, we just killed ourselves with miscues, with penalties. We want more plays. We’re working to generate more plays. There are a lot of things that factor into that. We’ll work to make sure that, again, you only have one football, so it’s hard to spread the wealth. It’s even harder when you only run 53-54 snaps.”

In an NFL world that has gone New School — the read option and Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly’s frenetic hurry-up spread offense — the Colts have gone back to the future.

That’s not to say it can’t work. Both Super Bowl participants, the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, feature strong running games, augmented by a down-the-field passing game.

The feeling here, though, is they can’t force feed the power running game. The Colts ran the ball effectively for a 4.9 yard-per-carry average, but only tried two of what former Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians called “chunk plays” and both fell incomplete (although one should have been a pass interference).

Sorgi shares that feeling.

“We’ve got one of the best quarterbacks in the league, some of the best receivers; I feel like we should spread teams out, go two or three wides, make them play cover two and then run the ball,” he said. “And honestly, I don’t know if we have the offensive line to pound the ball.”

In the coming weeks, 21 points won’t be nearly enough. Not against San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Houston twice.

Ultimately, it was just one game — a win, by the way — so we’ll resist the temptation to over-react.